To check off-page SEO performance, track six numbers once a month: referring sites and links to your key pages (Search Console Links report), lost links, branded search clicks (Search Console Performance), new brand mentions (Google Alerts), reviews and profile interactions (Google Business Profile), and referral visits (analytics). Rankings come last, because they lag the rest.
The usual situation: you spent two months on guest posts, a few swaps and some forum answers, and someone asks whether it worked. You open a paid tool, see a Domain Rating that moved one point, and have no idea what to say. The fix is to measure the things off-page work changes directly, in the order they change, with free tools.
This page covers off-page SEO as a whole. If you only build links and want to prove those links caused a ranking change, read how to know if your link building is working, which goes deeper on baselines and causality.
Which off-page SEO metrics should I track?
Track the signals your work creates, not third-party scores. These six cover links, brand and local, and all come from free tools.
Referring sites and links to target pages
In Google Search Console, open Links and note Top linking sites and the link count for each page you want to rank. Google's Links report help says it shows "a sample" of links and caps tables at 1,000 rows, so watch the trend, not the exact count.
Lost links
Links disappear constantly. Ahrefs' link rot study found that 66.5% of links to the 2,062,173 sites it sampled since 2013 had rotted. Export Search Console's "Latest links" each month and compare it with last month's to spot losses on important pages. Our guide to tracking backlinks has the spreadsheet method.
Branded searches
If people hear about you on other sites, more of them search your name. In Search Console's Performance report, filter queries with a regular expression for your brand and its misspellings. Google's advanced filtering help explains the "Custom (regex)" option.
Brand mentions
Set a Google Alerts alert for your brand and product names. Count new mentions each month and how many of them link to you. Unlinked ones are your easiest link requests.
Reviews and Business Profile interactions
For local businesses, record your review count, average rating and the views and clicks in your Business Profile's Performance section. Google's performance help page notes the data is available only for verified profiles.
Referral visits
In your analytics, look at visits from other websites (excluding your own sign-in or payment pages). A link that sends real visitors is worth more than one that only counts in a tool.
How do I set up a monthly off-page SEO report?
Use one spreadsheet with a row per month and a column per metric, filled on the same date each month. Here is a worked example for a small site, with illustrative numbers:
| Metric | Source | Month 1 | Month 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referring sites | Search Console Links | 9 | 17 |
| Links to 3 target pages | Search Console Links | 2 | 11 |
| Links lost this month | Latest links export | 0 | 2 |
| Branded search clicks | Search Console Performance | 14 | 22 |
| New brand mentions (linked) | Google Alerts | 3 (1) | 7 (3) |
| Referral visits | Analytics | 31 | 58 |
Reading it: the work is moving links to the target pages and mentions, which is what you control. Branded clicks and referral visits rising too suggests real people are finding you, not just crawlers.
What about rankings and Domain Rating?
Check rankings for the target pages last and over at least three months, because they react slowly and move for many reasons besides links. Third-party scores such as Domain Rating or Domain Authority are useful for comparing sites, but they are tool estimates, not Google metrics, so treat a one-point move as noise.
How often should I check off-page SEO?
Monthly is enough for most sites. Search Console's Links data updates gradually, and links take weeks to be found, so weekly checks mostly show random movement. Review the whole sheet every quarter and drop any tactic that has produced nothing in that time.
What does "not working" look like?
Three months in, the signs that something is wrong are clear: no new referring sites to your target pages, links coming only from unrelated or low-quality sites, or links you can't find in Search Console at all. In each case, change the tactic before adding more volume. How to do off-page SEO step by step lists which tactics to try next. If you trade links through Backlinkster, each swap is verified by API, which saves you checking the link by hand, but it still belongs in the same monthly sheet.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check my off-page SEO for free?
Use Google Search Console for links and branded searches, Google Alerts for mentions, Google Business Profile for reviews and local interactions, and your analytics for referral visits. Record them once a month.
What is the most important off-page SEO metric?
Relevant referring sites linking to the pages you want to rank. Total backlinks can be inflated by one site linking many times; the number of distinct relevant sites is harder to fake and closer to what matters.
Why don't my new backlinks show in Search Console?
Google has to crawl the linking page first, which can take weeks, and the report shows a sample rather than every link. If a link still hasn't appeared after a couple of months, check that the linking page is indexed.
Does Domain Authority measure off-page SEO?
It estimates a site's link strength using one company's data. It's useful for comparing sites but isn't used by Google, so track your own links, mentions and visits as the main measures.
Related: How to know if your link building is working · How to track backlinks · What is off-page SEO?